The Heriot-Watt University spin-out has developed a process to extract the protein left from the thousands of tons of grain used each year by the brewing industries in the form of spent grain, and from the distilleries in the form of draff, pot ale and spent wash.

The company, which is based at Heriot-Watt University, said while these by-products have traditionally been used as animal feed, it has now developed methods to extract the protein to develop new feed products.

It aims to make the Scottish feed sector self-sufficient by reducing the reliance on feed imports as well as replacing proteins already used in fish feed, such as soya bean meal.

Eleanor Mitchell, director of commercialisation at Scottish Enterprise, said: "We are very excited to be supporting a project with the potential to not only create high value jobs in Scotland but to also provide such significant value-add to the iconic Scottish food and drink industries, salmon and whisky.”

The Horizon Proteins project, a collaborative effort from Scotland's whisky and salmon industries and is sponsored by the Scottish Funding Council Horizon Fund for Universities.

Horizon Proteins was showcased this week at the Natural Product Biotechnology 2014 three-day conference held this week in Inverness.